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Sense of Sarah

Sense of Sarah: My Favorite Morphe Brushes

I have recently become obsessed with Sephora (enough to become a VIB in early February ha) and Jaclyn Hill thanks to my bestie, Kristi.  First of all, if you’ve never watched Jaclyn on Youtube….you must!  I love her personality and the different looks that she creates–even if I would never try one of her many looks.  (And I actually apply my face make up the way I do because she taught me!)  

On one of my many trips to Sephora, I befriended a girl that works there because she would always give me good tips about make up.  I told her that I loved watching Jaclyn, and she said that she did too!  Then I asked her if she used any of the Morphe brushes that Jaclyn uses because I had though about trying them myself.  The she let me in on a little secret–she only uses Morphe brushes because not only are they much cheaper than brushes sold at Sephora, but they are better quality.  That’s all I needed to hear to make my mind up about ordering!

This post is not sponsored by Morphe, but I’m writing this because I love these make up brushes so much!


I use this brush to apply and blend my highlighter to my upper cheekbone and tip of my nose.  It’s really soft which is perfect for applying something so light.
($7.99)

I use this brush to apply my translucent powder on top of my concealer.  Jaclyn would call this “baking.”  This brush is more dense which is needed when you’re wanting to really apply a powder to a certain area.  I also love that it’s tapered and that helps get right under your eye.
($13.99)

This is my favorite foundation brush ever!!!!  It doesn’t soak up the foundation and it applies it to where it looks airbrushed on, but it also gives me great coverage.  I will never use another brush for my foundation now that I’ve found this one!
($13.99)


Like I said, these brushes are super affordable but they are awesome quality!  Jaclyn uses the M501 and M439 , and she used Morphe brushes on her own before they began to sponsor her.

This is the first part in a series about make up!

What type of make up brushes do you use?


Linking up with Jenn and Jess today!


Sense of Sarah: Weight Battles + Diet Bet

I haven’t done a Sense of Sarah post in a while and today’s topic is really all about who I am.  It’s something that I struggle with daily and something I know that I will have to battle my entire life.

Back when I first started blogging, I did a post on my massive weight loss.  I think this is a weird topic for people to talk about, but it doesn’t bother me.  I’m happy to talk about how I lost the weight and what I struggle with now.  Pre-weight loss I always heard (skinny) people talking about they still struggled with body image issues after losing lots of weight.  And I used to think those people were crazy because they looked so great!  How wrong was I to think that because after I lost so much weight, I still didn’t feel small enough.  

Like I posted back in 2014, I started out at over 200 pounds, and my 5’7″ frame was having a hard time fitting into my size 16 dresses.  Then I joined Weight Watchers and got down to 150 pounds which put me in a size 10, and I thought I was happy.  Then I got engaged and thought I needed to be smaller.
2-3 months before the wedding

A few days before my wedding

I don’t have any pictures of what I looked like after losing more weight after getting engaged, but I got down to 145 pounds, wore a size 8 jeans, and my chest/shoulder/neck area was extremely bony to the point where both my mom and sister would point out how bony I was. I ended up gaining back a little weight since I was basically eating nothing to get down to 145, so on my wedding day (and I wouldn’t weight myself) I weighed probably 152 pounds–and I still thought I was fat.  

This brings me to today’s topic.  Since getting married in July 2104, being extremely happy, and then starting grad school in early 2015 and being stressed out ever since, I’ve gained some weight.  So after reading Annie’s post on her experience with Diet Bet, I’ve decided to do the same thing.  I had briefly heard of Diet Bet before, but after reading her post, I thought it would be the perfect thing for me to get motivated.

You simply join a game or create one yourself (I joined one), pay the money, and you have 28 days to lose 4% of your body weight.  If you do, you get to split the pot of money with all of the people who also lost 4% of their weight.

So how do they know you actually weight that and/or lose that much?
You have to submit two pictures (I am using the app I downloaded on my phone–super easy to do it) wearing something light and then another picture of the scale, your feet, and the word they give you for your game.

Since grad school literally takes up so much time and keeps me exhausted, I know that I’m really going to have to control my eating.  No longer can I indulge my sweet tooth (which is huge).  I’m tracking my food on the My Fitness Pal app and really trying to keep my macros in check and my protein at 30%–which is really hard by the way, so I’m okay as long as it’s in the 20s.  Exercising on Saturdays are a must for me and really easy, so I am working on getting 1-2 days during the week.  When I was at my smallest, I ran 4-5 days a week.  I know that my time will free up once I finish grad school, so I do know that this 2-3 workouts a week goal is just for a small time.  At least the key in losing weight is controlling your eating and that’s something I can control now–I’ve always heard it’s 80% of what you eat and 20% exercise.  You can’t out exercise a bad diet.  And my bad diet is something I’ve got to get control of–I love sweets way too much!

So I submitted my pictures on Tuesday and my final weight in is March 24th!  I’m really nervous in sharing this, but I know that it will help keep me accountable!!  

And if you’ve read this far, thank you!
Linking up with Annie today.

Sense of Sarah: How I Plan Our Meals

Before Dustin and I got married, I started thinking ahead to our marriage and the type of systems I wanted to set up–you know, this was when I was so tired of thinking about the wedding and decided to think about the marriage haha!  There were two things that I knew I did not want to deal with each week:  1. Going to the grocery store multiple times a week and 2. Having to decide what we were eating for supper that day.  I read a few different blogs and how those bloggers meal planned, and then I gathered a few different ideas and made it into my own system.  

I use these three things each time I meal plan (plus cookbooks–not pictured).  I have a binder where I keep a lot of my recipes in, my planner where I write down what meal goes with what day, and my grocery list pad.

I ordered the new hourly layout from Erin Condren, so I have to write our meals at the top of the day.  (When I had the vertical layout, there were lines at the bottom of each day where I could write each meal out.)  You’ll see that I plan out the main course of each supper, and I usually just cook a few veggies as sides if a meal calls for that.  I hardly ever plan out sides unless it’s something particular that I’m making–like roasted cauliflower and broccoli.  Also, I plan out Saturday-Thursday because I grocery shop on Friday after school (or sometimes Saturday morning, but I try to avoid that!).  I don’t have a leftover day listed on this week, but it occurs pretty much every week where we have one day to eat leftovers.
As I write out each meal, I also list the ingredients that we don’t have in our pantry.  This is done at the same time so I don’t have to look the recipe back up before going to the grocery store.  (Fun fact:  I keep this notepad in our “junk” drawer and as we run out of something during the week, both Dustin and I will add to it so I can make sure to get it on grocery day.  I started this in college when I lived with Janie and it’s something that worked great so I haven’t changed it!  Also, you’ll see how my husband likes to put his name by some food so I make sure to get what he likes and not what I prefer ha!)

 This is what the inside of my recipe binder looks like.  If I find a recipe online that looks good, I print it off and place it behind the correct tab.  Red is for appetizers, Yellow is for side dishes, green is for main dishes, blue is for desserts, and purple has extra notebook paper in case I want to jot down a recipe of my own.  My mom has a recipe binder, and so it’s natural for me to have one too.  I love printing out recipes because I can just adjust measurements and ingredients on the page instead of writing in a cookbook–which I still sometimes do.
I’m interested to hear how you plan out your meals and your system!  What works best for you and your family?

Linking up with Jenn and Jessi today!